The sometimes controversial website, craigslist has become the center of another scandal. This time the website is coming under fire because a lot of its users have started using the site as a prescription drug black market. Brazen drug dealers post for sale ads offering everything from roxycodone, vicodin, percocet, oxycontin, xanax and many other types of prescription drugs. This past weekend in New York City, police officers decided to respond to many of these ads and ended up arresting over twenty individuals who were trying to sell drugs from their homes. On the ads, many of the potential drug dealers posted ads that mentioned “No LE please” meaning no law enforcement. Not surprisingly, the police didn’t listen to those requests.

Wide Variety of People Dealing Drugs

The interesting thing about the more than twenty people that police arrested over the weekend is that they came from all different walks of life. Some of the dealers were known, small time dealers that had been previously booked for selling cocaine and heroin. However, others were very surprising people, such as a NYU grad student, a financial advisor and a sixty year old woman. It seems like some of these people just had extra prescription pills laying around and knew they could make some quick cash from selling them. Officers responded to these craigslist ads and bought a few hundred dollars worth of pills from these individuals in public places before eventually charging them with dealing drugs.

The Ongoing Battle Against Prescription Drugs

Authorities and legislators have been battling to keep prescription drugs from being trafficked for the last several years, but have had a lot of difficulties policing the drugs. Since these drugs are legally prescribed to some people for legitimate medical reasons it can be extremely difficult to control them. Despite all of the arrests made over the weekend, the ads on craigslist continued to be posted. One on Thursday read: “Hello ladies and gentlemen. If your in pain and need assistance look no further. I’ve got 30 (mg) ways to help!! … Not affiliated with any sort of law enforcement? If ALL of these pertain to you, email me with what your looking for (quantity) and we will work it out.”

As police around the country continue to fight against prescription drug trafficking, they may have to focus on a new black market that has emerged. Craigslist allows people to post brazen ads offering drugs like roxycodone, xanax, percocet, and many other prescription drugs and then meet up and sell them. These pills can be sold by anyone and it seems like more and more people are starting to deal their extra prescriptions that have just been lying around their homes. These pills can sell for well over twenty dollars apiece and many people are happy to make some quick cash by selling the pills they no longer need for their own ailments. Craigslist can be a great tool to help facilitate local buying and selling of goods and services between two parties, but it is often used for illegal activity as well.

Over the past weekend, an eighteen year old woman from the United Kingdom was rushed to the hospital after becoming violently ill from drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen. The woman was Gabby Scanlan and she initially complained about shortness of breath and severe stomach pain, before eventually collapsing and being rushed to the hospital. She had to have her stomach removed by surgeons who stated that she could have easily died from the incident. She is still in aftercare at the hospital and suffering from the trauma the liquid nitrogen placed on her body. She may need to go to a private alcohol rehab facility after her stint in the hospital to continue to recover.

Liquid Nitrogens Role in The Food Industry

The use of liquid nitrogen in food and beverage preparation is actually a pretty old process. It was first used as a way to present food in 1890 as a way to make elegant ice confections, however it is now becoming more and more popular. Restaurants and bars all over the world are using the chemical in their food and beverage preparation because it not only almost instantly cools whatever it touches, such as glasses or drinks, but also produces a really cool smoky effect that resembles a witch’s cauldron. Liquid nitrogen cocktails are very popular at fancy bars because they are quite entertaining and make the drinks very cold.

The Dangers of Liquid Nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen boils at -321 degrees fahrenheit, which means that it can cause instant frostbite when it contacts human tissue. Nitrogen is a harmless gas that makes up almost 80% of the air we breathe, so the only danger comes from how cold the liquid is. When the liquid boils and turns into a gas it expands its volume more than 600 times that of its liquid form, which could cause someones stomach to explode if its ingested. It seems that what happened to Scanlan is that the bartender served her her drink prematurely and she ingested liquid nitrogen causing the chemical to expand immensely in her stomach and forcing her to have to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove her stomach. Doctors are now saying that she was very lucky to have survived the event and it’s a good thing she was brought to the hospital when she was.

Today, liquid nitrogen is not regulated in most countries in the world and it can be used in restaurants and bars to create dishes and drinks that are potentially dangerous. Scanlan ingested Jager and liquid nitrogen which triggered her E.R visit and surgery. She remains in aftercare at the moment still suffering from severe pain that occurred from her unfortunate incident. She will likely need to go through private alcohol rehab once she is released from the hospital to continue to recover. This event has raised the question of whether or not liquid nitrogen needs to be regulated more in countries, especially when it is used for serving food and beverages.

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